Ethanol in gas; woes continue & increase!

kx250rider

kx250rider

REAL TVs have TUBES!
I'm really getting worried now about what we're all going to do to combat the ethanol damage going on in everything which uses gasoline :thumbsdn:

In the name of the environment, they've made it mandatory to put ethanol in all the gas, and the result is quite opposite of the goal, as I see it. That being that every car, truck, motorcycle, jet ski, lawnmower, chain saw, and anything else, made before about 2005, is LEAKING!!!!

Politics aside, I have had to rebuild the carburetors on both of my vintage motorcycles more than twice, and now yesterday I lost a half tank of gas out of my KX250 as it sat there with a steady stream of gas going into the ground from a destroyed fuel cock gasket, with the gas off! As I realized on Saturday at the Burbank Airport parking garage and many other places recently, you can now smell gasoline in the air anyplace where lots of cars are parked, and it's really kind of scary when you think about the fire risk.

I have read of people putting additives such as motor oil, ATF, acetone, or other things into gasoline to keep it from attacking seals and gaskets, but there is too much bad information out there for me to trust any of it. Has anyone here, actually formed an educated opinion as to what additive (legal or otherwise) might stop the damage from the ethanol? In addition to the seal and gasket destruction, the ethanol somehow leads to more moisture in the bottom of gas tanks, which of course translates to rust(holes) sooner or later.

Charles
 
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I use 100% gasoline in all my boats, lawn equiptment, and golf cart. Outboard motors suffer the worst from ethanol. There are still stations that sell it, but you have to look. Also marina's still have it available. You pay extra, but it's worth it.
 
There were quite a few stations pushing ethanol around here several years ago but the ones that didn't made it a VERY BIG selling point that they sold 100% gasoline.
When you'd drive by the blended stations they were void of fuel customers.
The blended dealers switched back to 100%. I was told by a state fuel inspector that when switching back to straight gasoline the dealer was required to run 4 or 5 storage tanks of 100% before legally advertising 100% gasoline again.
Blended just doesn't sell here and that's fine with me!
 
I just had my gas tank replaced again. They have a nylon/plastic liner that swells due to water retention in the Ethanol. I'm all for alternative fuels, but not everyone is ready for an increase. This is a known issue in Ducati's and Aprilia's. I'm sure others are affected as well.
 
My boat is in the shop now because of it. Ethanol is mandatory in most Maryland counties.

Update:

Just got the bill for my boat. Luckily, just the carb needed to be cleaned so it was only a couple hundred bucks.
 
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kx250rider said:
That being that every car, truck, motorcycle, jet ski, lawnmower, chain saw, and anything else, made before about 2005, is LEAKING!!!!

Charles
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The newest gas-powered item we have is a 2002 Jeep. Everything else is considerably older than even 1990, some back to the 60s. None of it has any leaks.
 
botrytis said:
AHH - it is NOT the ethanol that is the problem but all of the extractables in the gasoline. Ethanol is basically made 100% then made undrinkable by adding in a denaturant (gasoline or isopropanol). Our gasoline, ON THE OTHER HAND, is made by fractional distillation (anything that boils from 40C to 200C). Anything that comes out, in that fraction will be considered gasoline. There is a little more refining but not much. Since we are going to more and more contaminated oil supplies, like oil sands and tar sands, expect this issue to get worse not better. If they cleaned up the gasoline more, it would cost so much more, you would not be able to afford to buy it. People really need to understand what they are buying before they complain.

I am not saying ethanol is the way to go, with this, but the petroleum industry already gave us an oxygenate for gasoline (methyl t-butyl ether) and they either squashed or ignored the research about how bad this chemical is/was for the environment and human health.
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Actually what you get into are those unethical distributors that will sneak methanol in instead of ethanol.
 
Heard all this before many times as we've had ethanol here for 25 years or so. Basically its easy to deal with, it doesn't cause any harm to anything with fuel injection. In fuel injected cars/trucks I've used E10 all this time with 0 problems - but in small engines or vintage vehicles, carburetors do have problems, so I use regular gas. Premium in the older cars. Ethanol has advantages of higher octane, and it bonds with water so you won't have issues with water in the gas.
 
True about the methanol, and methanol defintely can cause problems. Haven't heard of it in many years around here though.
 
Bertram boats with their fiberglass fuel tanks are a serious issue with ethanol. The alcohol attacks the resin used in the tanks and it becomes a big mess. Replacing marine fuel tanks is usually a pretty major undertaking too, often involving cutting out the deck or sometimes the transom to get the tank out, then of course the work to patch the hole and refinish it so it looks good again.
 
Because the State of Michigan is just so much smarter than we are, they have passed legislation that allows vendors to NOT have to inform buyers that ethanol is in their gas. When they found out drivers (my like me) were avoiding it, they decided to forego any fisclosure of ethanol in an attempt to trick us into buying what they felt we should be using.
Just because a station doesn't state their gas contains ethanol doesn't mean it doesn't.
Delivery drivers tell our pump help all the gas they deliver around herehere has ethanol in it.
 
IME any station that had 100% gas for sale made a big point of advertising it, and sold at a higher price. I say 'had' because the last station I remember having it was the Union 76 on Auburn Rd in Utica. They haven't had it for years.
 
It made no difference in my truck. I got 20 mpg with gas and 18 mpg with the 10% EtOH.
Big deal...
 
My last bike was a 1986 Yamaha Radian with really small pilot jets (#30 I think). My friend who had it for sale in his shop got tired of tearing down the carbs and sold it to me for a really good deal. If that thing sat for two weeks it would clog. I found a station advertising no ethanol in their gas, switched to that exclusively and the problem was solved. BTW Berryman's B12 in the tank helps.
 
Andyman said:
Because the State of Michigan is just so much smarter than we are, they have passed legislation that allows vendors to NOT have to inform buyers that ethanol is in their gas. When they found out drivers (my like me) were avoiding it, they decided to forego any fisclosure of ethanol in an attempt to trick us into buying what they felt we should be using.
Just because a station doesn't state their gas contains ethanol doesn't mean it doesn't.
Delivery drivers tell our pump help all the gas they deliver around herehere has ethanol in it.
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Dang, that's just wrong. :sigh:
 
eteller said:
My last bike was a 1986 Yamaha Radian with really small pilot jets (#30 I think). My friend who had it for sale in his shop got tired of tearing down the carbs and sold it to me for a really good deal. If that thing sat for two weeks it would clog. I found a station advertising no ethanol in their gas, switched to that exclusively and the problem was solved. BTW Berryman's B12 in the tank helps.
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When I bought my 1983 Yamaha Maxim new, the dealer specifically said never use gasahol. I've been having carb problems on mine - probably the blend.
 
There's a HUGE Poet ethanol plant just outside my town; they are adding a cellulosic still this year so they can move away from corn. Somehow I doubt they ever will, though.
 
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